As the IMF warns that even a $111 carbon price in Australia will be insufficient to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, Greens’ climate and energy spokesperson, Adam Bandt, announced that the Greens will introduce legislation on Monday to make the mining, burning and exporting of thermal coal by corporations and their executives (but not workers) a crime after 2030.
“The climate emergency is so severe that a carbon price alone will no longer fix the problem,” said Mr Bandt.
“When it comes to phasing out coal by 2030 as the science requires, even the IMF has acknowledged that a carbon price is necessary but not sufficient.
“The Greens will continue to argue for the revival of the Greens/Labor carbon price, the only policy to successfully reduce pollution, but the Liberals have lifted pollution so much that we need to do more.
“Coal is the next asbestos.
“Like asbestos and tobacco, we now know things about coal we didn’t know before. We now know that coal kills people when used as directed, so we need to treat it like asbestos and regulate its phase-out.
“The Greens’ bill will steadily phase-out the export of thermal coal until it ends in 2030 and will prohibit the construction or expansion of any new coal mines or power stations.
“We must support workers and communities through the transition, which means finding decent, well-paid jobs for coal regions. Our bill also puts the liability on big corporations and their executives, not the coal workers who have helped power our country over our history.”
